Sounding-board of pianofortes



. disks or heads. The strings, cap, tuning vresponding parts in each ofthe several rUTNTITEI) STATES PATENT OFFICE.

A. SPEER AND E. MARX, OF AQUACHANOCK, NEW JERSEY.

SOUNDING-BOARD 0F PIANOFORTES, &C.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To al whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, ALFRED Srnnn and ERNEST Manx, of Aquachanock, inthe county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have invented a new anduseful Improvement in Sounding-Boards and Their Appendages ofPianofortes and other Stringed Musical Tnstruments; and we do herebydeclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ofthe same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming partof this specification, in which- Figure l, is a perspective view showingthe sounding board of a piano forte with all the parts to which thestrings are connected, the same being constructed according to ourimprovements. Fig. 2, is a longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3, isan end view, and Fig. t, a transverse section.

Similar letters of reference indicate corfigures.

The nature of this invention consists in making the sounding board inthe form of a hollow cylinder, cylindroid, cone, or prism, or part ofeither of such figures, the said board having its ends secured betweentwo block, and 'all parts of the instrument are suitably arranged aroundit to produce the sound. The principal object of making the board ofthis form is to improve the sound, but we believe there are also otheradvantages, of which one we will mention is that it will afford facilityfor making a double instrument, or an instrument with two sets ofstrings in one case.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use our invent-ion wewill proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is the sounding board which is represented to be in the form of ahollow cylinder; it is secured between two very strong wooden disks orheads B, and C, which are braced together by braces D, D, and may befurther strengthened by tension rods as shown at a. The disk C, servesas the tuning block, the tuning pins I), b, being screwed into itsperiphery.

E, is the cap which may be made of cast iron as in the instruments inuse; it is in the form of part of a cylinder so that all parts of itsface may be at equal distances from the sounding board; it rests uponand 9,287, dated September 28, 1852.

is firmly secured to the disk B, having a deep flange c, which extendsover the outside or back of the disk, and being recessed all around atCZ, cl, (see Figs. l and 2,) so as to fit over the periphery of thedisk; the fiange and recess are to insure firmness.

The strings e, e (only a few of which are shown) are secured by loops tothe pins f, f, in the cap and pass through holes in the cap as shown inFig. 2), thence over the bridge g, hl, to the tuning pins Z), Z).

The sounding board as we have shown it is a perfect unbroken cylinder,but it is quite possible that in some respects it might be better or atany rate as well with a part of the cylinder cut out or with a number ofslots cut longitudinally in it. Though we consider the circular or partcircular the best form for the transverse section of the board, and haveno intention to depart from that form; still we think that the sameadvantages may be obtained in almost an equal degree by making itelliptical, polygonal, or part polygonal, and for that reason we do notwish to conne ourselves closely to the circular or part circular form.

We consider all of the above-named forms to be equivalent to each otherprovided no support is given to the board except that afforded by thedisks or heads B, and C.

It may be necessary to state that either of the above forms orarrangements of the sounding board requires the cap, the tuning block,bridges, strings and all parts attached or connected thereto to beformed, or arranged in a similar manner.

Vhat we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

Making the sounding board A, of a piano forte or other stringed musicalinstrument and arranging the strings and all appendages thereto, in theform of a cylinder or part of a cylinder or in any of the forms we havementioned as considered to be equivalent, the said board having its endssecured between two disks or heads B, and C, and having no other supportexcept that derived from the said disks or heads.

ALFRED SPEER. ERNEST MARX.

Witnesses:

O. D. MUNN, THos. MAHON.

